252. Miqbilā / Muqbilā, Khirbet | خربة مقبلة

Jerash Governorate

Maqām Shēkh Emsallam / Qublān Qāsem ibn Murraḥ

JADIS no. 2319058

MEGA no. 6701

Coordinates: 32°18'59.5"N 35°52'14.9"E

32.316528, 35.870806

Plan: broad rectangular with miḥrāb in the middle of the S-wall facing the door in the N-wall (now blocked). In

front of the former entrance grows an old pittoresque terebinth tree (arabic: buṭm). On both sides of the miḥrāb are two small square windows. The maqām lies at the N fringes of a modern graveyard on a terrain slightly sloping to the S. The oldest preserved tombs date to the late Ottoman period.

Measurements: 72 m²

Exterior: ca. 11.20 x 8.40 m

Interior: ca. 10 x 7.20 m. The walls have an average thickness of 1.20 m.

Building Materials: Partly ancient limestone blocks of considerable sizes, fragments of a Roman fasciae door frame reused for framing the small windows in the exterior S wall. The miḥrāb has been constructed with well-dressed stones, the interior of the apse is covered by a thin greyish-brown plaster.

Construction details: The walls of the maqām are preserved up to a height of 2.80 m, at the S wall in nine horizontal layers out of partly large coarsely dressed beige limestones in dry masonry in two sides, filled with rubble and earth in the core. In the interior of the room, no evidence for supportive elements of the roofing can be observed. If case there was a roof in original condition of the mausoleum one has to assume a flat or a barrel vaulted ceiling . At the interior W wall extends a modern, well maintained tomb of the Shēkh Beni Murraḥ in E-W direction.

Preservation: ruined.

Inscription(s): G. Schumacher (Steuernagel 1927) refers to the shrine as that of Shēkh Emsallam. The modern inscription, however, mentions one of the later tribal leaders of the region during the early Hashemite period.

Translation: "Al-Fātiḥah. The tomb of the deceased Shēkh Qublān Qāsem al-Qublān ibn Murraḥ.” According to oral information by locals, this Shēkh died in AD 1937.

Date(s): Mamluk (?) - Ottoman. The shrine was used over the centuries for various tribal leaders of the region.

Traveler Reports: “Im Osten von mikbili liegt das Weli des Schêch emsallam” (Steuernagel 1927)

Bibliography: For taxation of the village in the Ottoman registers see Hütteroth - Abdulfattah 1977, 164 s.v. Nāhiya Bani 'Ilwan, Za'āma wa tīmā, Muqbilā; Steuernagel 1927, A. 262.